Speed of Life

“Life is a fatal adventure. It can only have one end. So why not make it as far-ranging and free as possible?”  Alexander Eliot I received the sad news yesterday that my dear friend, art writer and mythologist, Alex Eliot passed away. Born April 28, 1919, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Alex would have turned 97 this week.  Alex was the art editor at Time Magazine from 1945 until 1960. During those years Alex crafted numerous articles about the modern art scene.  Alex always held us spellbound with tales of meeting the major artists of the period.  Alex especially loved to tell the story of meeting Salvador Dali in New York and that Dali became a close friend because Jane Winslow,  Eliot’s wife,   had lived in Catalonia and spoke Dali’s native Catalan fluently.  For his 90th birthday, Alex's talented daughter, the writer Winslow Eliot, asked me to craft an appreciation of Alex. I have revamped this essay a bit to reflect on his pass...

Gregg Chadwick  ‏ @ greggchadwick     1m 1 minute ago Sant a Monica, CA Happy birthday J.M.W. Turner! # Turner # PaintingSetFree Currently @ GettyMuseum http://www. getty.edu/mobile/ gettygu ide /center/exhibitions/turner/artifacts/248344_2111.html   … More Thoughts to Follow...

Gregg Chadwick  ‏ @ greggchadwick     3m 3 minutes ago Sant a Monica, CA Google Doodle celebrates 140th birthday of Japanese artist Shoen Uemura 1875-1949 http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uemura_Sh %C5%8Den   …

by Gregg Chadwick Turn the nightly news on today, or scan the latest headlines on your iPhone, and it would seem that the world grows uglier each day. Eleven years ago,  I wrote  about my search for images of peace. I  hearken  back to those thoughts prompted by a memory  of a time in Perth, Australia  reading  an art review concerning an exhibition about non-violence. The title of the review was "How do you paint peace?" Prompted by these ongoing concerns, I have been creating a new series of paintings using ideas of New Urbanism - Los Angeles in particular with peace as a subtext. What the amazing writer, actor, and teacher Claudette Sutherland, in my studio yesterday evening, called "Love Songs to the City."  Gregg Chadwick Third L.A. (for Christopher Hawthorne) 30"x24" oil on linen 2015 Three books published in the last few years should be on every peacemaker's bookshelf: Steven Pinker's  The Better Angels of Our N...